members in Lagos have alleged that they are being illegally extorted by officials of the scheme.

The affected corps members, belonging to Batch ‘B’ Ikeja Area 1 zone, said they were being mandated to pay N1,500 for laptops for officials and another N500 for NYSC Foundation.

The corps members alleged that they have been threatened to pay the money or get punished with an extension of their one-year programme.

One of the corps members, who identified himself as Mr. Wilberforce Johnson, said, “We belong to various Community Development Service groups like Environment, Health and so on and we are supposed to plan a project that will benefit the community. But we have been told now to jettison the projects that there is no time to do them and that we should buy laptops for NYSC officials instead.

“In my group, we were planning to construct toilet facilities for schools and we have started costing the materials needed for the project before this development.

“We were planning to contribute about N600 each for the project but now, we’ve been asked to contribute N1,500 for the laptop and another N500 for NYSC development fee. By the time we remove N2,000 from our N19,800 monthly allowance, the result will be obvious.”

Batch ‘B’ corps members will be completing their programme in June, 2013.

According to the corps members, some of them had already started paying the money.

An investigation by our correspondent showed that the affected corps members are about 200 in number.

Another corps member, Mr. Kayode Olubunmi, said no receipts were issued for the payment of N1,500 purportedly meant for the purchase of the laptops.

However, the corps members said they were afraid to be openly critical of the alleged extortion for fear of being victimised by the NYSC officials.

Another corps member, Mr. Tayo Alimi said, “Some of us, though not happy about it, have paid part of the money because we don’t want any problem. Even when you speak about it, people will tell you to keep quiet because nobody wants to be given an extension.”

However, the NYSC Zonal Coordinator in charge of Agege, Alimosho, Ifako-Ijaiye, Ikeja 1, Ikeja 2 and Oshodi, who identified himself as Mr. O. C. Mordi, denied the allegations, saying that the N500 NYSC Foundation fee was mandatory for all corps members throughout the country.

On the allegation of N1,500 being purportedly contributed for laptops, Mordi said the initiative to buy a laptop for the scheme’s Ikeja office was the corps members’ and that NYSC officials had no part in the decision.

He said, “It’s not laptops; it’s only one laptop and it’s not for officials. The money is also not for the laptop alone, it’s also for their send off party and they’ve been told that it must be held in our premises (Ikeja Local Government Secretariat) to monitor them.

“There is even a circular passed around that any contribution the corps members would make above N20, they should seek an approval. On this one, they sought and got an approval. We all have our personal laptops.”

But when Saturday PUNCH asked Mordi for a copy of the approval given to the corps members for the contribution, he declined, saying, “I don’t have to talk to you; you can’t just come into my office and accuse me. I have superiors just as you have superiors, go and get all the information you want from them.”http://www.punchng.com/news/lagos-corps-members-decry-extortion/